Anthropic’s global power play: from seoul’s tech hubs to the vatican’s doorstep
Anthropic is currently playing a very expensive, very strategic game of global Risk, and the latest dice rolls have landed them in two of the most disparate markets imaginable: the high-speed tech corridor of Seoul and the culturally steeped streets of Milan.
The company just tapped KiYoung Choi—a 30-year veteran with a resume spanning Google Cloud, Microsoft, and Adobe—to lead its new South Korean operations. This isn't just some vanity satellite office; South Koreans are reportedly using Claude at 3.5 times the rate you’d expect for their population size.
Apparently, Korea isn't just using AI to generate weird images; they are leaning heavily into technical and creative work. If you want to know what "AI adoption" looks like when it isn't just a CEO's fever dream, look at Law&Company or SK Telecom, both of which are already piping Claude into their core workflows to handle legal research and customer service.
But while Seoul is about raw technical momentum, Anthropic’s new Milan office is leaning into something much more ethereal: divine approval. In a move that feels like a plot point from a Dan Brown novel, Anthropic’s Italian expansion is closely following the release of Magnifica Humanitas, the first papal encyclical dedicated to AI.
Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah was even invited to the Vatican to speak at the presentation. It’s a masterstroke of PR, positioning Claude not just as a tool for efficiency, but as the "ethical" choice for a country that cares deeply about human dignity and religious tradition.
The Italian client roster is already sounding like a "Who's Who" of European industry, with names like Pirelli, Enel, and Generali Group signed on. One financial app, Satispay, claims Claude helped them compress an 18-month development roadmap into just seven months.
That is the kind of corporate math that makes VCs salivate, but it also highlights the aggressive pace Anthropic is setting. They aren't just selling a chatbot; they're selling a "safe" transition to a world where 70% of a senior team’s time can be "freed up" for higher-judgment work.
Whether that extra time results in better products or just leaner payrolls remains the billion-dollar question. But by cozying up to both the world’s most tech-hungry developers and its oldest religious institutions, Anthropic is ensuring they have a seat at every table that matters.
Looking at this practically: will the "responsible AI" tag hold up once the hallucinations hit the legal briefs? Either way, Anthropic is making sure that whether you’re coding in Seoul or praying in Milan, Claude is right there with you.
Sources: Anthropic Korea, Anthropic Milan.
